At the Milliner's by Degas in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2010

At the Milliner's

Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)

Date: 1881

Medium: Pastel on five pieces of wove paper, backed with paper, and laid down on canvas

Dimensions: 27 1/4 x 27 1/4 in. (69.2 x 69.2 cm)

Classification: Pastels & Oil Sketches on Paper

Credit Line: The Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Collection, Gift of Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg, 1997, Bequest of Walter H. Annenberg, 2002

Accession Number: 1997.391.1

Gallery Label:

This work is perhaps the earliest of Degas's pastels of scenes in milliners' shops. It may have been conceived as a picture of a shopgirl (at left) adjusting a hat on a stand. However, once Degas drew the woman underneath the hat at the right and added the back of the sofa, the identity of the figure at the left was transformed, as shopgirls were not allowed to sit. Thus the picture became one of two friends or sisters.


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